If the mounting Edmonton Oilers’s losses are educational–the buzzwords recently are “it’s part of the process”–then what head coach Dallas Eakins learned Friday night during the 4-0 butt-kicking from the Vancouver Canucks was this:

They didn’t have much an answer or any answer for Vancouver centre Ryan Kesler, who did whatever he felt like doing, almost with a sneer as if to say “yeah, what are you going to do about it?” He looked the schoolyard bully knocking several Oiler players on their rear-ends and doing it, seemingly, with little fear of reprisal even though he isn’t much of a fighter. This isn’t the nasty piece of business, Milan Lucic, we’re talking about, folks, who had a dandy scrap with the very tough Luke Gazdic Thursday at Rexall Place.

When Kesler wasn’t banging them, over 20 minutes, he was setting up goals by Chris Higgins and Daniel Sedin and delivering seven shots (three on net, four others wide or blocked). He was, as they say, a one-man wrecking crew and the Oilers had no real comeback.

Disturbing really. I’m not saying Gazdic had to chase Kesler around the ice to tell him to knock it off, but there were no Oilers, say, trying to put the body on, say, Henrik Sedin as payback. The Oilers, while probably tired after expending lots of energy to fight back against Boston Thursday night in a 4-2 empty-net loss, still are too nice. There is little venom to their game. The Canucks are, in the parlance of today, a heavy team but not LA Kings heavy or St. Louis Blues heavy or San Jose Sharks heavy.

Kesler is a heckuva player–he was slowed dramatically last year with injuries–but he still was doing whatever wanted Friday with no impunity. That’s not right. Somebody needed to try and box his ears, or at least get in his face.

As a corollary, there was little of the “we’re getting out pound of flesh” from Canucks’ Zack Kassian for his stick foul on Sam Gagner in pre-season which broke his jaw. If the TV cameras were correct, Kassian appeared to mock Gagner’s face-mask Friday night although somebody suggested he was making fun of Luke Gazdic’s facial hair.

If it was Gagner he was laughing at, he’s a very dim bulb. If the words coming out of Kassian’s mouth “what’s that?” were aimed at Gagner, it’s bush-league. It’s coming from a guy who hasn’t come close to (a) being anywhere as proficient an NHLer as Gagner or (b) being the player the Canucks thought he’d be when they traded Cody Hodgson to get him because he doesn’t work hard enough. Kassian, unless we’ve missed something, didn’t reach out to Gagner after the initial stick whack to say he was sorry, so there’s no remorse there.

Truth is, Gagner, if he had no facial protection, might have challenged Kassian himself even if he’d be over-matched. For a little guy, he’s not the least bit afraid. But, as much as Gazdic was looking for Kassian late in the game during a scrum, there was no retribution in the first 50 or so minutes in the first game he’s played against the Oilers since the stick foul on Gagner. Maybe I’m old school, but Kassian, who likely would have been whupped by Gazdic judging by his knocking 6’6″ Patrick Bordeleau to his knees and the hard shot that stunned Milan Lucic, should have had to pay the piper.

Oilers’ coach Dallas Eakins saw another, if not way heavier then more aggressive, team teach them a lesson. Now they head to Anaheim (big team) and Los Angeles (bigger team). They were winning games and slowly climbing out of their deep early-season hole but this stretch of games was always going to be a litmus test for the Oilers.

“There were positives to come out of the loss to Boston,” said Eakins (spirited comeback from three goals down), “but coming to Vancouver…that team may be playing as well as any team in the league right now. That is your measuring stick and it’s a great reminder for all of us. This is where we have to get. We needed our team to play with that pace and that compete level and be in the fight for the whole 60 minutes. But we couldn’t even get started and we tried everything to start it.”

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